May 31, 2006, 9:14 PM CT

Treatment Of Alcohol Dependence

A large-scale study of different treatment approaches for alcohol dependence underlines that medicine can play a key role in treatment.

While many treatment approaches were found helpful, the authors report that the patients who were most successful in abstaining from alcohol 16 weeks after treatment were those prescribed naltrexone under medical management and those participating in a multi-session program of alcohol counseling delivered by a behavioral specialist.

The paper appears in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and reports on the largest clinical trial ever conducted of pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for alcohol dependence.

"The most robust finding in the study is that those receiving any medicine did much better than those who received no pills at all," says The Scripps Research Institute's Professor Barbara Mason, an author of the paper. "This should be a wakeup call. With less than one percent of those seeking help for alcohol dependence receiving a prescription, medicine is underutilized. Medication for alcoholism can offer patients an advantage for their recovery, especially in a real-world setting".

Another important aspect of the study, says Mason, is that it offers new safety data on the prescription drugs used in the trial, naltrexone and acamprosate, which were administered at higher-than-standard doses. "We had no serious drug-related events during the course of the research," she says. "That fact should offer prescribing physicians a high degree of comfort".........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 30, 2006, 11:46 PM CT

Knowledge Of Infection May Prevent Spread Of Herpes Virus

A new study suggests that the risk of transmitting the virus that causes most cases of genital herpes could be cut in half by more testing and informing sexual partners of infection. The study is reported in the July 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

Until recently, there was little evidence to show that knowledge of infection would lead to decreased transmission of herpes simplex virus (HSV) to others. But Anna Wald, MD, MPH, and his colleagues at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle studied 199 patients with newly acquired genital HSV-2 infection and found that patients were about half as likely to transmit the virus when they knew they had genital herpes and informed their sexual partners.

As per Wald, "these findings suggest that testing persons with HSV type-specific serologic assays and encouraging disclosure may result in decreased risk of HSV-2 transmission to sexual partners."

The importance of this finding is described by editorialists Edward Hook III, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Peter Leone, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as one of three effective tools to prevent the spread of this sexually transmitted disease (STD). "Genital herpes is one of the few common STDs for which, at present, there is little coordinated emphasis on control efforts," say Hook and Leone. The two experts also support suppressive antiviral treatment and condom use as the other necessary elements to control the spread of genital herpes nationwide.........

Posted by: Rose      Permalink         Source

May 30, 2006, 6:59 AM CT

Clever Bacteria Riding In The Stem-cell

Researchers have discovered a new clue to how bacterial parasites are able to produce a long-term infection that can spread through an insect population. They have found that a type of bacteria that infects insects actually hitchhikes in the eggs of fruit flies. This ensures that the bacteria are passed from mother to offspring.

The findings show that in the first stages of infection, Wolbachia bacteria home in on stem-cell niches in the fruit fly, where they can continually infect the cells that produce eggs. Stem-cell niches are specialized cellular environments that provide stem cells with the support needed for differentiation and self-renewal.

The new studies offer the first glimpses of how Wolbachia infection, which occurs in a wide range of insects, is passed from one generation to the next. According to the researchers, their experiments with the fruit fly Drosophila offer a valuable laboratory model for tracing the machinery bacteria use to infect insects. The basic studies could ultimately help scientists understand the mechanisms underlying insect-borne parasitic diseases that affect humans.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Eric Wieschaus, first author and HHMI research associate Horacio Frydman, Jennifer Li, and Drew Robson collaborated on the studies. The researchers, who are all at Princeton University, published their findings in the May 25, 2006, issue of the journal Nature.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 25, 2006, 10:14 PM CT

Sleep More To Lose Fat

Stop those sleepless nights, you try to relax sleep well and avoid weight gain, that's the message from a recently published study. This study has found that women who sleep 5 hours or less weigh more compared to those women who sleep 7 hours. This study was presented in the American Thoracic Society International conference in May 2006.

This study showed that women who sleep 5 hours or less per day were 32 percent more at risk of developing significant weight gain compared to women who sleep for 7 hours per day. The criteria for significant weight gain mentioned above was a gain in weight of 33 pounds or more. The study also showed that women who sleep 5 hours or less have 15 percent higher risk of becoming obese during the study period of 16 years, compared to women who sleep more. Women who had only 6 hours of sleep per day, had twelve percent increased risk of major weight gain and 6% increased risk of obesity when compared to women who regularly get 7 hours of sleep.

These results are from a large study, comprising of a total of 68,183 middle-aged women, who were part of the Nurses health study. The study participants were required to state their sleeping habits and asked to report their weights every couple of years of years during the 16 years of the study. It was noted that at the beginning of the study women who slept 5 hours or less per day on an average had 5.4 extra pounds in their body in comparison to women who had 7 hours of sleep on a regular basis. The lead investigator of the study, Sanjay Patel MD, who an Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University located in Cleveland, Ohio, says that this is the largest study of sleep habits and weight gain. He says that, this is the first study to show that reduced sleeping is associated with increased risk of weight gain over a long period of time.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink

May 25, 2006, 0:22 AM CT

Switch For Skeletal-Muscle Atrophy

Researchers in Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered genetic and drug-treatment methods to arrest the type of muscle atrophy often caused by muscle disuse, as well as aging and diseases such as cancer.

The findings might eventually benefit people who have been injured or suffer from diseases that cause them to be bedridden and lose muscle mass, or sometimes limbs, due to atrophy, said Amber Pond, a research scientist in the school's Department of Basic Medical Sciences.

"The weight loss and muscle wasting that occurs in patients with cancer or other diseases seriously compromises their well-being and is correlated with a poor chance for recovery," Pond said. "In addition, muscle weakness caused by atrophy during aging can lead to serious falls and bone loss. Exercise is the most beneficial strategy to treat atrophy. However, many individuals are too ill to adequately participate in exercise programs.

"We've found a chemical 'switch' in the body that allows us to turn atrophy on, and, from that, we also have learned how to turn atrophy off".

Findings based on the research, funded in large part by the American Heart Association, are detailed in a study available online today (Wednesday, May 24) in The FASEB Journal, published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The study will be in the journal's print edition in July.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 24, 2006, 7:19 PM CT

Less Expensive Treatment Of Gaucher's Disease

Prospects for eventual development of a less costly and more convenient therapy for Gaucher's disease have brightened with new research findings published in the recent issue of ACS Chemical Biology.

The existing therapy costs up to $750,000 annually for a single patient, continues for life, and must be given intravenously rather than by mouth. An oral therapy based on the new research could cut those costs by 100-fold.

Gaucher's (go-SHAYZ) disease is rare, but ranks as the most common lysosomal storage disorder and genetic disorder affecting Jewish people of Eastern European ancestry. Individuals with Gaucher's disease, which can be fatal, produce a defective form of GC, a critical enzyme that breaks down a fatty substance called glucosylceramide.

In the new report, researchers have confirmed experiments they reported initially in 2002 that "chemical chaperones" can partially correct the genetic defect responsible for most cases of Gaucher's disease. Like aspirin, penicillin and most other existing drugs, chemical chaperones are small molecules -- natural and synthetic substances with a low molecular weight.

Using patient-derived cell lines, scientists have extended those earlier studies to provide new insights into the defect and how chaperones correct it. The defect involves protein misfolding and prevents a key enzyme, glucocerebrosidase (GC), from reaching the location in cells where it normally functions. Jeffrey W. Kelly, Ph.D., of the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., headed the research team.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 22, 2006, 12:49 AM CT

Shingles: Painful Return Of Chickenpox Virus

If you've had chickenpox, you may be at risk of shingles -- a painful skin disease that can lead to serious health complications.

Shingles is most common in adults between the ages of 60 and 80, in part because aging can affect the body's ability to fight off infections. Shingles is a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox and remains in your nerve tissue.

The recent issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource recommends you see your doctor immediately if you suspect shingles. The earliest warning signs and symptoms are a burning, tingling, or numbness in your skin and a red rash that follows a nerve pathway around one side of your face or body.

Within a week, the rash turns into fluid-filled blisters. Even after the blisters dry up -- commonly in one to two weeks -- pain can persist and be severe. In some cases, the blisters can become infected and cause skin scarring. Blisters near the eye can cause lasting damage or blindness. Other problems may include hearing loss or brief facial paralysis.

Eventhough there is no cure, prompt therapy with antiviral medications can reduce the disease's severity and complications. These drugs also may reduce the painful aftereffects of shingles -- a condition known as post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). PHN can cause sharp, throbbing or stabbing pain long after a shingles rash has healed. Other drugs that may be used for shingles or PHN include corticosteroids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and topical skin creams or patches containing a local anesthetic.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 18, 2006, 10:04 PM CT

Stopping Diarrhea Caused by Bacteria

Turning on a surface receptor in cells lining the intestinal wall can halt the often deadly diarrhea brought on by the bacteria V. cholera and E. coli, as per a Yale School of Medicine study published May 15 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Secretory diarrhea, which occurs when the small and large intestine secrete salt and water at rates higher than the intestine can reabsorb, is a major killer of children under five years of age worldwide. Unless stopped, the diarrhea can rapidly produce massive losses of fluid and salt and result in heart failure.

"Despite new therapies, mortality from acute diarrheal illnesses remains in the millions each year," said authors Steven Hebert, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, and John Geibel, M.D., professor in the Department of Surgery. "Development of specific agents to target this intestinal receptor could provide a new approach for treating this debilitating and life threatening diarrhea".

The acute diarrhea associated with infantile diarrhea, cholera or foreign travel is a result of eating food or drinking water contaminated with bacteria. The bacteria produce a toxin that over stimulates the intestinal cell's normal secretory machinery. Outbreaks of cholera from contaminated food and water are often seen following earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and typhoons/hurricanes. Travelers' diarrhea, which is caused by the toxin STa, can affect individuals traveling to areas with less highly developed hygiene and sanitation.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

May 17, 2006, 11:39 PM CT

Tobacco Smoke Linked to Allergic Rhinitis in Infants

University of Cincinnati (UC) epidemiologists say it's environmental tobacco smoke-not the suspected visible mold-that drastically increases an infant's risk for developing allergic rhinitis by age 1.

Commonly known as hay fever, allergic rhinitis occurs when a person's immune system mistakenly reacts to allergens (aggravating particles) in the air. The body then releases substances to protect itself, causing the allergy sufferer to experience persistent sneezing and a runny, blocked nose.

This is the first study to show a relationship between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and allergic rhinitis in year-old infants, the UC team reports in the recent issue of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and an early online edition May 17.

"Previous studies have addressed risk factors for allergic rhinitis, but they failed to examine multiple environmental exposures, and some yielded contradictory results," says Jocelyn Biagini, lead author and an epidemiologist in UC's environmental health department.

The study evaluated the effects of numerous indoor exposures to such things as environmental tobacco smoke, visible mold, pets, siblings and the day-care environment on 633 infants under age one.

"We found that infants who were exposed to 20 or more cigarettes a day were three times more likely to develop allergic rhinitis by their first birthday than those who were not exposed," says Biagini.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink

May 13, 2006, 12:58 AM CT

Tension Headache May Actually Be TMJD

People whose recurrent headaches have been diagnosed as tension-related actually may be suffering from temporomandibular muscle and joint disorder, or TMJD, a study headed by a researcher from the University at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine has shown.

Results showed that examiners could replicate tension-headache symptoms in 82 percent of subjects by performing the clinical examination of the temporalis muscle, which is involved in TMJD.

Richard Ohrbach, D.D.S., Ph.D., UB associate professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, presented the study results at the American Association of Dental Research meeting held recently in Orlando, Fla.

The temporalis muscle is responsible for closing the jaw and is involved in chewing, but these core functions of that pair of muscles often are ignored when the presenting complaint is "headache," as opposed to jaw pain, Ohrbach said.

"Because headache is so incredibly common, it often is regarded as inevitable, and if sufferers label the pain as 'headache,' they may not seek help," he said. "Or if they do seek help, the label of 'headache' typically will propel the individual to a doctor or neurologist for consultation.

"Knowledge about the intersection between jaw pain and headache is not well established, and consequently, jaw pain may be ignored in the differential diagnosis," Ohrbach added. "This can be most unfortunate for the individual, because TMJD can be very treatable, but if a jaw disorder is ignored, then therapy for the headache may not address all of the factors contributing to the headache."........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

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